When Barack Obama entered the White House, he followed a long-standing precedent for the development and implementation of major policies by appointing administrators—so-called policy czars—charged with directing the response to the nation’s most pressing crises. Demonstrating that the creation of policy czars is a strategy for combating partisan polarization and navigating the federal government’s complexity, Vaughn and Villalobos offer a sober, empirical analysis of what precisely constitutes a czar and what role they have played in the modern presidency.

Justin S. Vaughn is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University.

José D. Villalobos is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso.

“Justin Vaughn and José Villalobos have given us the first effort at a comprehensive appraisal of the work these czars have done. This book is an excellent effort to fill a major gap in the scholarship of both the presidency and public policy.”
—Congress the Presidency
 

“. . . the first in-depth study of this growing bureaucratic phenomenon. This work is essential reading for all students of the American presidency and fills a large gap in the study of the executive branch and public administration . . . Essential.”
—Choice Reviews
 

“In this well-written and analytically sophisticated book, Justin Vaughn and José Villalobos explain the widely discussed, but little understood, role of administrative czars in the presidency. They document how recent presidents have made both wise and unwise use of policy czars to coordinate major priorities. In drawing lessons from this history, they argue that czars, or something very much like them, are essential tools that presidents must occasionally use to lead the fragmented executive branch. If you want to understand how presidents can get their policies implemented effectively, this book provides a valuable guide.”
—James P. Pfiffner, George Mason University